Abandoned Vermont: Clarendon House

This beautiful 1820 Federal Style (Italianate additions added later) is not lived-in, but it is well cared for by its neighbors in Clarendon, VT.

1820 Federal Style House.

Interior end chimneys, symmetrical massing, fanlight and door lights, marble lintels and sills are characteristic for Federal architecture. The paired brackets and 2/2 windows are Italianate details. Often owners modernized their houses with in-vogue details, just as we would do today.

The porch details are also Italianate. Clearly, I should clean my camera: lens blur again.

The adjacent barn.

Behind the house and barn, down the farm road.

Another view from the farm road.

Looking up from the front door. There is something haunting about a worn curtain blowing through an old broken window. Note the Flemish brick bond, a sign of wealth (it was more labor intensive and skillful than other brick bonds).

The mercury glass doorknob with reflections.

The side porch.

Functioning shutters.

The side porch door. Italianate details here are the brackets and the two rounded glass panel door

Brick houses are always strikingly beautiful, especially in Vermont where most of our houses are clad in wood. The house is a mystery, as it almost looks lived-in. Thankfully, the neighbors seem to own the property and maintain it. All it needs is some love and probably some electrical, plumbing and heating upgrades. I think I’d call this house Empty or Lonely rather than Abandoned.

————

p.s. I’ve been asked why I do not provide more specific information about location and history for the buildings in the Abandoned Vermont series. My answer? It is for privacy reasons, particularly for those buildings that are so vulnerable and sitting alone down a dirt road. For the majority of these buildings, I do not know the story of ownership or its current state. Abandoned houses are fascinating, but I do not encourage breaking and entering. I may have found their history in the State Register, so I’ll provide the town and year of construction; but, as for more specific information: it’s not something I feel comfortable leaving for the entire internet to find. Not everyone who is looking for abandoned houses is a preservation friendly, house loving being. I hope you understand.

Good news on this one! After being tied up in an estate and unoccupied since the 1960s, the ownership has been sorted out and it will be lived in again. Most significantly, this was the home of renowned covered bridge designer Nicholas Powers in the 1870s. The current owner is Powers’ great-great-great grandson.